Mathis Wackernagel

Mathis Wackernagel is a <a href="/facts/Switzerland/LcGuxeTe">Swiss</a>-born <a href="/facts/Sustainability/9oYH9mAs">sustainability</a> advocate. He is President of <a href="/facts/Global_Footprint_Network/BfWEJbzs">Global Footprint Network</a>, an international sustainability <a href="/facts/Think_tank/xl9t8HmC">think tank</a> with offices in <a href="/facts/Oakland/84tfrNlx">Oakland</a>, California, and Geneva, Switzerland. The think-tank is a <a href="/facts/Non-profit/AmXu2c85">non-profit</a> that focuses on developing and promoting <a href="/facts/Performance_indicator/qVbntaF8">metrics</a> for sustainability.
After earning a degree in <a href="/facts/Mechanical_engineering/cbId4fye">mechanical engineering</a> from the <a href="/facts/ETH_Zurich/IxHAFGUU">Swiss Federal Institute of Technology</a>, he completed his Ph.D. in <a href="/facts/Community_planning/dcuv8eTp">community</a> and <a href="/facts/Regional_planning/ekKMfNP9">regional planning</a> at the <a href="/facts/University_of_British_Columbia/8QCl5YGd">University of British Columbia</a> in Vancouver, Canada in 1994. There, in his doctoral dissertation under Professor <a href="/facts/William_Rees_(academic)/PdCN4ecB">William Rees</a>, he worked with Rees in creating the <a href="/facts/Ecological_footprint/GNWvohys">ecological footprint</a> concept and developed the accounting methodology for it. 
He has worked on sustainability issues for organizations in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia and Australia. Wackernagel previously served as the director of the Sustainability Program at Redefining Progress in Oakland, California (1999 - 2003), and directed the Centre for Sustainability Studies / Centro de Estudios para la Sustentabilidad in Mexico (1995-2001). In 2004, he was also adjunct faculty at SAGE of the <a href="/facts/University_of_Wisconsin%25E2%2580%2593Madison/Rfj54YvS">University of Wisconsin–Madison</a>. In 2010, he was appointed Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of 1956 Visiting Professor at <a href="/facts/Cornell_University/FGyXuXeI">Cornell University</a> (1 July 2011 – 30 June 2013). Wackernagel was a member of the <a href="/facts/Global_Business_Network/I7z8m1Xv">Global Business Network</a>.
Wackernagel has said that "<a href="/facts/Overshoot_(ecology)/baUzIL9g">Overshoot</a> will ultimately liquidate the planet's ecological assets." He also noted that "We look at all the problems in separate ways – climate change or biodiversity loss or food shortage – as if they were occurring independently. But they’re all symptoms of the same underlying theme: that our collective metabolism, the amount of things that humanity uses, has become very big compared to what Earth can renew."

Mathis Wackernagel open-in-new

Mathis Wackernagel